We have four kids and have done private Catholic all the way through. We will never regret spending money on education and have been so happy with the results. It is totally worth it.

Anonymous wrote:You have to make your own choice. But know at Catholic schools, how the school "embraces other religions" is to show how they're inferior but still worthy of studying.

+100

We would never do Catholic, instead we provide other enriching activities through family vacations, an au pair who takes the kids after school 3 x a week (on trips to museums, or other activities), summer camp experiences and spring break trips to a diff state each year.

Education starts at home, it does not begin in school.

We don't want our children to only think in a linear way.

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to a private k-8 Catholic school and we had terrible teachers and terrible kids. I wish we had moved him to a different Catholic or to public. Grass is always greener.

So sorry, what school was this and how long ago?

No. The school used to be great and it went downhill. Violent kids admitted, favoritism for teacher kids, PE teacher dropping f bombs and screaming at students. Mass exodus of families at end of the year. Wish we had gone to another Catholic because there are so many good ones in the area.

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to a private k-8 Catholic school and we had terrible teachers and terrible kids. I wish we had moved him to a different Catholic or to public. Grass is always greener.

How can all the teachers and students be "terrible." Sounds like the school was simply not a good fit for your kid. Did he have behavior problems?

My kid went to a private k-8 Catholic school and we had terrible teachers and terrible kids. I wish we had moved him to a different Catholic or to public. Grass is always greener.

OP I am the poster above. One thing that I observed (especially at the parochial level) is that the teachers are very mission driven vs. career driven. It's not about the money or benefits, its about the mission of a strong Catholic education. I will add that over the past several years, MCPS schools have gotten more dangerous and disruptive, and we find that many teachers are leaving public schools for a safer, more community driven environment, where kids are less disruptive and more eager to learn.

I was blown away by the dedication of these teachers during the pandemic. Yes, some left due to concerns about health, but those who remained were in person for the entire 2020-21 school year, while MCPS was on zoom. This made a huge difference for my daughter.

OP I know you are concerned about $$. We went from a very good W district elementary to nearby Catholic school years ago (daughter is in HS now). At the time, we felt stretched, but as the years passed, our income increased due to promotions, etc.

Now our daughter is in a $45K per year HS, and we don't even flinch.

Also know that Catholic high schools are usually less expensive than secular ones and they offer financial aid and merit aid.

Moving her was the best decision, especially when covid hit. Luckily we got in before the pandemic because now people are on to MCPS and most who moved from there stayed. Applications are up everywhere still. Also know that admission to a Catholic HS is easier coming out of a Catholic parochial school.

I agree with your assessment of the benefits of Catholic school and recommend it highly. And every time I wonder over to this forum, I know we made the right decision.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

What are the benefits again?

Op here.

Teacher-student ratio (2 teachers per class up to grade 4, after that, ratio is still small as kids are divided up in various classes based on academic need)
Smaller community where they do know your kid’s name
Spanish class 2 times per week starting in pk
PE 3 times a week
2 recesses
Strong reading and writing foundation taught
Teacher stability… the majority has been there for years and love the school and teaching
Much more racially diverse than our public ES for sure
More hands on learning opportunities as teachers do have more flexibility in how to teach
Less Chromebook use in young grades
Cursive still being taught for those who can/want to learn

These are the ones I can think of

As someone with DCs nearly out of ES I don't find many of these items to be compelling _in retrospect_. Maybe try asking friends and relatives with older kids what kind of ROI they have (or have not) witnessed in the presence or absence of these kinds of things.

I'd also submit that there are multiple kinds of diversities. We're fortunate in that our MoCo ES is extremely diverse from a racial / ethnic /cultural / linguistic perspective. But being a public school it also embraces and supports diverse abilities in a way that no Catholic school I've known can do. Before you head to Catholic, make sure your DC doesn't have any documentable learning challenges that need public-school-level support.

I had this dilemma when my DS started school. We tried a private school for kindergarten which was not a good fit. He was bored and when he's bored, he'd walk out of the class.

We then moved him to MCPS. The first few years (first and second grade), he was still bored and became disruptive and a "flight risk." He was given an IEP, not for learning issues, but for behavioral issues. His homeschool ES was really good in terms of supports that he flourished and got accepted to the Centers for Enriched Studies for 4th and 5th grade. He thrived in Middle School (non-magnet), and recently got accepted to two magnet programs for high school at Poolesville HS (Science Math and CS, and Humanities) which are criteria-based.

As you make your decision, you need to tell yourself honestly what is important to you:
1) Small class size vs large class size
2) Academic rigor vs normal curriculum (Catholic Schools don't do advanced classes -- their 8th grade math is Algebra which is a 7th grade math for advanced students)
3) Are you planning to do K-12 in Catholic School?
4) Do you think it's better to pay private school now than saving the $ for college fund?

MCPS schools are not created equal -- this is TRUE. But with the right MCPS school (and staff), your kid can flourish there especially with YOUR full support and advocacy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

What are the benefits again?

Op here.

Teacher-student ratio (2 teachers per class up to grade 4, after that, ratio is still small as kids are divided up in various classes based on academic need)
Smaller community where they do know your kid’s name
Spanish class 2 times per week starting in pk
PE 3 times a week
2 recesses
Strong reading and writing foundation taught
Teacher stability… the majority has been there for years and love the school and teaching
Much more racially diverse than our public ES for sure
More hands on learning opportunities as teachers do have more flexibility in how to teach
Less Chromebook use in young grades
Cursive still being taught for those who can/want to learn

These are the ones I can think of

I am no fan of our mcps ES, and have to homeschool because ours is so bad (students are great, but the staff is bad). Every ES is different: do the teachers talk at you and the students and prefer to gossip and do the bare minimum—this is the characteristic of poorly managed schools—or do they seem to care and enjoy being with the other teachers and students? Are the students materialistic, racist, and is the atmosphere stifling?—That is the biggest problem of W schools.

I would base my decision on the environment and culture. A couple Spanish classes a week is not going to move the needle on being bilingual. Cursive is nbd imo, frequent PE is a detriment since my kids work out quite enough. It sounds like the biggest benefits are smaller classes and higher quality ELA. ELA at mcps ES is not wonderful: ELC isn’t offered until 4th and 5th to qualifying students and is ok but nothing to go out of your way for. I don’t understand people who rave about it—it seems like how ELA should have been taught from the start.

If you like that Catholic school, might be worth your while.

Thank you for this great perspective. OP here. Yes, ELA is very weak in public I think. Our middle child did ELC in 4 and 5 grades and it was great in that it challenged him more, but as much as we thought it would.. and class was so large teacher had barely any time to go over papers/work more than once. We dont like the Eureka math.. but I guess kids do ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can afford the 9K tuition (with FA) but it’s still extra money we could save if we do public. However, we see so many academic benefits from Catholic in addition to the lovely close knit community, smaller teacher/student ratio and how the school embraces other religions (despite teaching from the Catholic perspective of course). Public would be considered by many a “strong” one but class sizes are in the large side. Feeling “guilty” about oaring tuition while having a “good” public in neighborhood..but is it “good” for real…

What are the benefits again?

Op here.

Teacher-student ratio (2 teachers per class up to grade 4, after that, ratio is still small as kids are divided up in various classes based on academic need)
Smaller community where they do know your kid’s name
Spanish class 2 times per week starting in pk
PE 3 times a week
2 recesses
Strong reading and writing foundation taught
Teacher stability… the majority has been there for years and love the school and teaching
Much more racially diverse than our public ES for sure
More hands on learning opportunities as teachers do have more flexibility in how to teach
Less Chromebook use in young grades
Cursive still being taught for those who can/want to learn

These are the ones I can think of

I am no fan of our mcps ES, and have to homeschool because ours is so bad (students are great, but the staff is bad). Every ES is different: do the teachers talk at you and the students and prefer to gossip and do the bare minimum—this is the characteristic of poorly managed schools—or do they seem to care and enjoy being with the other teachers and students? Are the students materialistic, racist, and is the atmosphere stifling?—That is the biggest problem of W schools.

I would base my decision on the environment and culture. A couple Spanish classes a week is not going to move the needle on being bilingual. Cursive is nbd imo, frequent PE is a detriment since my kids work out quite enough. It sounds like the biggest benefits are smaller classes and higher quality ELA. ELA at mcps ES is not wonderful: ELC isn’t offered until 4th and 5th to qualifying students and is ok but nothing to go out of your way for. I don’t understand people who rave about it—it seems like how ELA should have been taught from the start.

If you like that Catholic school, might be worth your while.

Anonymous wrote:
You’d be crazy to do this, frankly. But it’s your life and your money, so… do what you want.

Please elaborate...

You’d be crazy to do this, frankly. But it’s your life and your money, so… do what you want.

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic classes are smaller, but at ours, it was very “today I teach this in this manner.” So it wasn’t individualized like I expected (perhaps unfairly) and no centers (though it was Covid). The old fashioned teaching methods and attitude (punishment for fidgeting) are what people there want, so go eyes wide open. There was a family with six kids shoe sixth kid was disruptive and the family was so active in the school they didn’t do much. Turns out kids are kids everywhere.

This is like your fourth post on this. Visit your ES before you avoid a lovely school because “posters” mentioned disruptive kids. Get off DCUM and look at things in real life.

You might need to "get off DCUM" as well and take a break because you are all over it as well